Iranian general: Our hands on the trigger, your air bases within reach. Netanyahu: We are ready

Iran’s leaders used their Friday sermons to double down on their threatening invective against Israel, the day after its April 19 Independence Day celebrations. They chose a particularly hardline Revolutionary Guards general, vice commander Hossein Salami, to indicate that they meant business: The promised military punishment was on the way for Israel’s air strike on the Syrian T-4 base on April 9, the deaths of seven Guards officers and the knocking out of their airspace command in Syria. Prime Minister

Binyamin Netanyahu replied: We hear the threats from Iran. The IDF and the security forces are ready for any development.” Addressing a festive post-Independence Day cabinet meeting, he said: “We will fight whoever tries to harm us. We are not put off by the price and will exact a cost from those who want to harm us… the people will stand strong.” Since Iran stepped up its bellicose rhetoric,